Brooke Ross

My primary area of interest is New Zealand English, particularly how our accent is changing over time. I mainly focus on the vowel space, and using acoustic analysis to track sound changes and explore the social factors that shape language.
A big focus of my work has been tracking changes to modern New Zealand English in Auckland. Through this work we discovered that young people in Auckland are leading new changes to the NZE accent, which are influenced by its diverse and constantly changing communities.
My current research focus emerged from my rediscovery of a 1921 thesis on New Zealand English by G. E. Thompson. Inspired by this extensive primary source of information about NZE, our team is currently undertaking research which re-examines the origins of the New Zealand accent and challenges long-standing assumptions about its development, through an analysis of historical and contemporary recordings.
In addition, I have lent my expertise to various projects involving both New Zealand English and te reo Māori phonetics. For example, I helped develop an interactive book designed to teach speech science using te reo Māori.